er horse and rode around the village, singing a
song, in which she told how lucky I had been; that I had killed a crane, a
bird that many grown men had not killed; and that I was going to be a good
hunter, and always fortunate in killing food. My uncle did not give the
bird to Bellowing Cow; he kept it, and told my mother to cook it; and he
said to her: "Save for me the wing bones of this bird, and give them to me,
in order that I may make from them two war whistles, which my son may carry
when he has grown old enough to go to war against his enemies."

I was proud of what had happened, and it made me feel big to listen to this
poor old woman as she rode through the village singing her song.

What he did at this time showed some things about my uncle. It showed that
he liked me; it showed that he was proud of what I had done; and it showed,
too, that he was a person of good heart, since he called to see what I had
done a poor old woman who had nothing, and gave her a horse. It would have
been as easy for him to have called some chief or rich man who had plenty
of horses, and then sometime this chief or rich man would have given him a
horse for some favor done him.

I had killed the crane with a pointed arrow, of which I had three, though
in my hunting for little birds I still used blunt arrows. My uncle had made
me another bow, which was almost as large as a man's bow; and I was
practicing with it always, trying to make my right arm strong, to bend it,
so that it might send the arrow with full force.

The next summer, when the tribe had started off to look for buffalo, I
spoke one night to my uncle, as he was sitting alone in his lodge, and said
to him: "Father, is it not now time for me to try to kill buffalo? I am
getting now to be a big boy, and I think big enough to hunt. I should like
to have your opinion about this." For a time he sat smoking and
considering, and then he said: "Son, I think it is time you should begin to
hunt; you are now old enough to do some of the things that men do. I have
watched you, and I have seen that you know how to use the bow. The next
time that we run buffalo, you shall come with me, and we will see what we
can do. You shall ride one of my buffalo horses, and you shall overtake the
buffalo, and then we shall see whether you are strong enough to drive the
arrow far into the animal."

It was not long after this that buffalo were found, and when the tribe went
out to make the surround